Rapid Write Rewind at Theatre 503

Monday night I went to the Latchmere for the first night of their week of short plays - Rapid Write Rewind. My piece Come On Eileen started the evening and it was fun to see it again after a year.  The director Tanith Lindon had been unable to get all the original cast together. The two new actors were great and as Matt Ward and Adam Diggle could have been father and son there was no difficulty in believing they were older and younger versions of the same man.  Natalie Bridge was in the original cast and was even better than the last time.  Ended the evening feeling that the piece had possibilities.  We might be able to take it further.
The night was yet another demonstration of how much talent there is out there, directors, actors, writers, all responding to an opportunity to do their best work.  And a good audience too.  From a writer's point of view having a 10/15 minute given a full performance is a whole lot better than a rehearsed reading.  They sound like a good idea but they rarely come to anything.  The actors, book in hand will do their best. It's fun but when it's over it feels as if there's nowhere left to go. You have a whole play, you know something of what works and what doesn't but no sense of how you might take it further.  Much better to have a short piece complete, polished, performed, produced.  Try something different.  Set yourself a problem and try to solve it. And not have to worry about whether your masterpiece will ever be seen again because that's not what it's there for.  You can take chances and you can learn a lot.
That was certainly the feeling I got on Monday night.  Writers moving happily out of their comfort zone.  Good one, 503. Thank you.